Ever since the paleo diet unshackled me from the fear of eating animal fat I have been on a mission to indulge in foods previously avoided. Barbecued pork ribs is one of those foods. My goal with this recipe was to create something delicious that would be paleo, which means, among other things, having very little or no sugar. It was also important the dry-rubbed ribs be good enough to be eaten without sauce. Of course, barbecue sauce is pretty indispensable in the minds of most people and my family is no exception. So I have also included a spicy barbecue sauce recipe that contains no high fructose corn syrup and only 2 tablespoons of sweetener. The dry rub recipe contains coconut crystals which is a low-glycemic natural sweetener that adds some sweetness and caramelizes when the ribs are grilled. You can either leave this ingredient out entirely or replace it with a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar if you like.

3 full racks ofbaby back ribs (a.k.a. back ribs, baby backs, loin back ribs, loin ribs, Canadian back ribs).

Each rack is usually 2-3 pounds, about half of which is bone. I bought a three-pack from Costco which was 9 lbs for $3.99/lb. The bone side has a membrane covering it called the pleura. This membrane should be removed before applying the dry rub because it can be leathery and almost unchewable when cooked and prevents flavors from penetrating. Fortunately for me, the ribs from Costco already had the membrane removed.

Instructions for ribs

Rinse the ribs and then pat them dry with paper towels. Place the ribs on large pieces of foil on shallow baking pans. Apply the dry rub evenly on both sides of the ribs. Wrap the ribs in the foil, making sure you have a good seal to keep in the juices. Ideally you should allow them to marinate for 30 minutes or more before cooking but this step is optional if you don’t have the time.

Cook the ribs at 200 degrees F for 4 hours. If you have the time, you can turn off the oven and let the ribs “rest” inside for 30 minutes. Preheat a gas grill for about 10 minutes and unwrap the ribs and pour off the cooking juices into a container for use in the barbecue sauce. Place the ribs on the grill, turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes with the lid closed.

Turn the ribs over and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and cover with foil to rest for 15 minutes or until you are ready to serve.

Barbecue Sauce

1 1/2 cups of cooking juices from the ribs (or beef stock)

3 cloves fresh garlic, finely diced

6 oz can tomato paste

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup prepared mustard

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

black pepper to taste

Instructions for barbecue sauce

While the ribs are cooking on the grill, combine drippings (or stock) and the diced garlic and simmer in a medium sauce pan for 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining ingredients and simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or more if you like a thicker sauce.

Slow cooking resulted in extremely tender pork ribs that pulled right off the bone but were not overcooked to the point of falling apart. In my humble opinion, the mark of truly good ribs is when they are tasty enough to be eaten without adding barbecue sauce and I honestly believe this recipe hits that high mark. I served the ribs along with some brussels sprouts cooked with bacon and TOLERATION gluten free ale. These dry rubbed paleo pork ribs would also be good served with a paleocoleslaw or collard greens and/or cauliflower rice or mashed cauliflower.

Instructions

Wrap the ribs in the foil, making sure you have a good seal to keep in the juices.

Ideally you should allow them to marinate for 30 minutes or more

Cook the ribs at 200 degrees F for 4 hours. If you have the time, you can turn off the oven and let the ribs “rest” inside for 30 minutes.

Preheat a gas grill for about 10 minutes and unwrap the ribs and pour off the cooking juices into a container for use in the barbecue sauce.

Place the ribs on the grill, turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes with the lid closed.

Turn the ribs over and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and cover with foil to rest for 15 minutes or until you are ready to serve.

While the ribs are cooking on the grill, combine drippings (or stock) and the diced garlic and simmer in a medium sauce pan for 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining ingredients and simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or more if you like a thicker sauce.

While the ribs are cooking on the grill, combine drippings (or stock) and the diced garlic and simmer in a medium sauce pan for 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining ingredients and simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or more if you like a thicker sauce.

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54 Responses to "Dry Rubbed Barbecue Pork Ribs – Paleo Style"

I made your recipe last night. It was astonishingly good. I didn’t expect the bbq sauce to be as delicious as it was. And it (the sauce) was a large enough quantity that I was able to freeze half of it for next time, which will be soon!

Caution, following this recipe will produce outstanding ribs!
I’m doing this on 9 racks of pork spare ribs for a wedding this weekend. The ribs were brined first for 2 days in soy sauce/apple juice blend. I tripled the dry rub recipe which was the perfect quantity for both ribs and tips. Smoked with a hickory/alder/mesquite blend at 200 to 250*F for 6 hours in a “smoke vault”. Extended the time because the upper levels in the smoker are much cooler and rotation is needed. Mopped both sides with the sauce, wrapped in foil and baked in oven @ 250*F for 45 min. Double the sauce recipe was good for mopping only 6 racks. I did substitute iodized salt for Celtic sea salt in the sauce. These were spicier than I had expected and are not sweet but the flavor is just top notch! I will caramelize by dusting brown sugar on both sides and broiling a couple minutes.

Craig,
I’m totally fascinated by your process. I would LOVE to taste those ribs after they were in the “smoke vault”. I try to keep the sugar to a bare minimum for people who are avoiding it. But the idea of caramelizing with a little brown sugar sounds great and probably doesn’t add up to too much over the entire recipe. Thank you for giving me the feedback. I’m so glad it turned out well.
Lea

I used to put sugar in the rub and my meat would always burn! I’ve only tried broiling with brown sugar once but it adds a great crispy, “candied” texture. Thanks for your feedback, if you have any suggestions, please share them!

Made the ribs a few weeks ago (with only the rub) and now just put in another few racks of ribs for Father’s Day! SO good. Best ribs we have EVER had–both paleo and pre-paleo days. The only change I made was no coconut crystals or sauce. Instead, I basted the ribs while on the grill with the leftover juices that were left in the foil/pan and added some pure pineapple juice, since pineapple tones down the spice factor. AMAZING. Thank you for this. 🙂 love love love!!

Did I read this right? Cook the ribs for a total of 30 minutes on the gas grill? Am I missing something? I thought that it would take a few hours? I’m a “novice” chef and very new to paleo so trying to make this right…Thanks in advance!

I can understand not wanting to use the oven this time of year. The recipe is for cooking the ribs in the oven on very low heat for about 4 hours. That’s why you only need 30 minutes on the grill. It results in extremely tender ribs that fall off the bone. If you don’t want to use the oven and only the grill, I’m sure you can do that. You would just get a somewhat different result. I have not tried making them on the grill entirely so I can’t say for sure how long you would need to cook them.

My wife and I used your recipie for cooking ribs on our portable electric grill, turns out you can grill them at 200 degrees for the 4 hours instead of using the oven. Luckily our little grill has a built in thermometer. They fell off the bone they were so good, I’m trying it again today for dinner. Thank you!

Hey Ryan, You are welcome. And thanks for letting me know about the grill. I have never tried it that way but it would be a great idea for folks who don’t want to make their house hotter during the summer by using the oven.
Lea

Made these for the long weekend and they were a massive hit. Have used smoked paprika for a long time but wrapping the ribs and slow cooking them first was brilliant. Used some fresh basil in the sauce and maple syrup instead of honey. Brilliant. Thanks.

I made these last night, and linked this recipe from my blog. The world should know about this recipe, lol. I had never made ribs before, and my hubs thought he had died and gone to heaven. You could seriously bottle that barbecue sauce, so so good.

When I cook any meat , chicken I cook it in the oven top shelf, in a cast iron heavy fry pan, I use cracked black pepper and a meat rub . I bake in tempature of 400 degree, I don’t use any oil in the pan, it will cook in its own juices ,turn it about 20 min cook another 20 min ,ribs esp taste awesome. With chicken u just need to adjust the time ,

definitely a nubi paleo eater AND cook but these sound delicious and i’d really like to try them….2 maybe silly questions: in the first pic (instructions for the 4 hour oven cooking) the ribs are shown wrapped up one rib at a time; and then in the 2nd pic (instructions for the post oven electric grill segmant), there’s a whole rack pictured. ?

2nd, can you do them all in the oven, without the finish off time on the grill? Anybody have any ideas what modifications would that take? I’m a urban small interior studio dweller…

thanks in advance for any help anyone can give! My mouth is already watering….

Hi Ria,
The first picture you are referring to is actually a photo of three full racks of ribs – not individual ribs. They are the same three full racks that you see later in the photos on the grill. I think you could finish them off without a grill. I would suggest you use your broiler to finish the cooking and just keep and eye on them to make sure you don’t burn them. I would imagine the time would be similar but you would have to be mindful of how far away from the broiler you place the ribs. Good luck!
Lea

OMG, these ribs were so good, and unbelievably tender!! Followed the recipe almost exactly and 2 out of the 3 ribs (also from costco) were eaten by 6 women. What a great and healthy 4th of July treat. And the sauce, as simple as it was, was incredible!

Hmm, I never thought about that but it sounds like a great idea. I don’t see why you couldn’t do it that way as long as you reheat the ribs a bit before grilling – or at least make sure they aren’t still cold. Mainly because the grilling part is fairly short so you want to make sure it warms through. Great idea!

There are plenty of things that don’t freeze well but I have found that ribs are not one of them. I prepared 12 racks in early May and kept them frozen until the 4th of July and they cooked up mighty fine! As with freezing anything, vacuum sealing is ideal. I’d image that freezer burn would diminish their quality.

Had this last weekend with friends. It was unbelievable! The sauce was lick-the-plate good. Instead of making my own rub, I picked up “Uncle’s Lu’au Coffee
Rub & Seasoning” from the Aloha Spice Company. The subtle earthy coffee flavor went really nice with the meaty ribs. I’m craving it again.

Burned to a crisp. Followed the directions exactly. Turned them over on last 10 mins, came back out to flames everywhere, completely burt, wasted 4.5 hours if time and money. They looked fantastic up until those last 10… No clue what went wrong in those last few minutes

That’s really unfortunate Gary! I don’t know your exact set-up but my best guess is the heat increased during those last 10 minutes. The article says 4hours at 200 in the oven and 10 minutes on the grill. Was it just the grill time that killed them? Sometimes it’s the sugar burning and others it’s all the meat. I’ve had this happen more over coals than a gas burner or being very close to the heat source when finishing. I often will only use my gas grill for finishing and staying on top of them the entire time.
Here’s now I handle cook ribs now:
~3 hours around 325*F in the oven covered, with juices, adding water if the pan dries out. No sugar before this step as it will burn!
~2 hours in my smoker set 200-250*F (highest racks away from the heat) with wet wood chips in a foil pack. Make sure to look at the temp often. This ensures smoke but they should have already cooked in the oven. Spray/baste periodically w/ water and vinegar mix.
~30 minutes, Baste w/ sauce. They can be lowered or heat can increase. I’ve found that any temperature above 275*F and they will start to burn. The sauce should be bubbling and sugars caramelizing.
Best of luck next time!

Oh Gary,
That’s terrible. I can only imagine your disappointment, not only in having spent the time and money on something that ended up inedible, but also the cost of it all – not to mention I bet you had such a great anticipation of delicious ribs. I can only surmise that the grill was on too high when you grilled them. I haven’t had mine burn but it certainly is a risk on an open flame if it isn’t watched like a hawk. Very sorry to hear of your experience. Better luck on your next attempt.

Thanks for the insight.. So.. I took off the grates / heat-sheild and found out that my grill had 2 completely separated venturi tubes rusted out ans broken (one already didn’t work prior) essentially, this gave me zero heat control and all the gas / flame was pouring out of one side. This would be the 2nd time replacing the tubs in just 3 years.. Tossed that grill and picked up a brand new Weber Genesis 330 SS.

So here we go on round 2 tonight.. Something tells me I’m going to be in for a real treat knowing that the problem was 100% my faulty grill. Will keep everyone posted, and thanks again for the comments!